Congratulations to Associate Professor Alaina Brenick, who received a CLAS Funding for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Initiatives Grant for her project, The Trans and Non-binary School-based Discrimination Scale: Validating a community-derived measure to understand academic social injustices of gender expressive youth.
Faculty
HDFS members to present at Gerontological Society of America
Five HDFS faculty and three HDFS graduate students will be giving five presentations at the Gerontological Society of America conference in early November in Indianapolis. See them all listed here.
HDFS faculty and grad students present at NCFR Conference
Seven HDFS faculty and 10 HDFS graduate students will be presenting their research at the National Council on Family Relations Conference in Minneapolis in November. See a listing of all of their presentations here.
Annamaria Csizmadia receives UConn Faculty Recognition Award
Associate Professor Annamaria Csizmadia received the University of Connecticut Stamford Campus Faculty Recognition Award. This award honors faculty who exceed expectations in their service to students on campus, and who have a thorough record of teaching, research, and service. Congratulations!
Cora Megan, HDFS Faculty Spotlight, October 2022
Cora’s career in early childhood development and education began at UConn 15 years ago. After starting her college career as a music major at the Hartt School of Music, she felt compelled to transition into a field that could leave more of an impact. Because she always had a special interest in babies and toddlers, she was drawn to the HDFS program at UConn and completed the early childhood specialization in 2010. This program connected her with some incredible mentors who have helped shape her professional career in the years since.
After graduating, Cora found a remarkable early learning center, Alphabet Academy, located in Hamden, Connecticut where she decided to plant her roots. Cora started as a toddler teacher but gained teaching experience with infants through preschoolers over the course of six years. She was an integral part of opening their Yale affiliated site, The Nest, where she served as the director for three years. In 2019 she helped launch their fourth campus in Branford where she spent the past three years. Alphabet and The Nest’s mission is based on giving children the time and space to develop into their authentic selves. In carrying out this mission, she was able to develop and refine her teaching skills and gained a profound understanding of how to nurture children’s social and emotional development.
Even though Cora loved working with children and families in this capacity, she longed to develop a deeper understanding of parenthood and the parent-child relationship. This interest led her to return to UConn to pursue her Master’s degree in HDFS. In 2018 she completed this degree while working full time as a center director at the Nest. Through her graduate experience, she became a registered Circle of Security Facilitator, received her infant mental health endorsement and presented at the World Association of Infant Mental Health. Cora was also exposed to teaching undergraduates for the first time as a teaching assistant- an experience that was both challenging and rewarding. After graduating, she wanted to continue teaching undergraduates in her area of expertise and sought out an adjunct faculty position at UConn Stamford where she has taught child development courses for the past two years. She is also a parent educator for Peace at Home Parenting Solutions and regularly provides online webinars and individual consulting to parents and providers.
In Cora’s career, it seems like all roads lead back to UConn, and she is thrilled to join the early childhood specialization as a full-time faculty member on the Stamford Campus this year. She intends to pay it forward to this generation of UConn students and closely mentor them so that they are as prepared and excited to join the early childhood workforce as she was over a decade ago.
Cora lives in Hamden CT with her husband Brian, 1 year old son Everett, and dog Ziggy. In her spare time, she can be found playing flute in the American Chamber Orchestra, trying out new recipes, enjoying a group fitness class or spending time with family and friends.
Rachel Cohen participates in National Head Start Caucus
Associate Professor Rachel Chazan Cohen was part of a National Head Start briefing on Early Head Start for the bipartisan PreK and Child Care Caucus. She and Assistant Professor Caitlin Lombardi also visited the offices of several CT members of congress.
NFDC conduct Instructor Institute Training in Storrs
Members of the National Family Development Credential (NFDC) team (Sue Pappas, Caroline Mavridis, & Amy Knight) conducted a four-day NFDC Instructor Institute in Storrs, certifying 25 new FDC instructors from across the country – from California to New York, and in between (Oklahoma). HDFS Professor Charles Super delivered the closing ceremony remarks. NFDC, founded and directed by Claire Forest, and co-directed by Charles Super, is a 90-hour classroom- and field-based training on concepts and skills of family empowerment for all front-line service providers. It has operated since 1994 and has been headquartered at the UConn Center for the Study of Culture, Health, & Human Development since 2010. About 17,000 workers have been credentialed and NFDC now operates in 46 states.
Mary Tabb Foley, HDFS Faculty Spotlight, September 2022
Mary Tabb Foley first joined the UConn community as an undergraduate student nearly twenty years ago. UConn was Mary’s first choice to pursue her undergraduate studies. As a Connecticut native, it felt like the right place to spread her wings while being close to home in a community not all that different from where she grew up. At the start of her time at UConn, Mary was hoping to become an elementary school teacher. However, fate was at play when a course in a major called Human Development & Family Relations with a fieldwork opportunity presented itself. This fieldwork experience was at the Child Development Labs on campus and Mary was asked to complete her fieldwork hours in the infant classroom. That first day at the Child Development Labs put Mary on a new trajectory to pursue a career she knew much less about but knew without a doubt that she found exactly where she was meant to be.
Mary often shares with students how this chance semester led her to a find and follow a new path for a fulfilling and enriching career in early childhood education. After graduating from UConn, Mary worked directly in community-based early childhood education programs in Hartford and Willimantic. As an early childhood teacher, Mary cared for and guided learning for infants, toddlers, and preschool-aged children. During this time, Mary found frequent opportunities to build on her professional calling by volunteering in professional organizations, including the Hartford Association for the Education of Young Children and the CT Association for the Education of Young Children. These experiences fueled her desire to lead and have a meaningful impact on the lives of young children and their families. As a lifelong learner, Mary quickly discovered that she wanted to pursue an advanced degree in education. Mary earned her Master of Arts, dual-degree in Early Childhood Education/Early Childhood Special Education from the University of Saint Joseph, and a CT State Teacher Certification focused on birth through kindergarten. At this time Mary began working directly with some of the youngest children in Connecticut in the CT Birth to Three system. Mary has always believed that shifting perspective to see the world through the children she is with has incredible outcomes to meet each child where they are and respond to their unique needs. With a shift out of the classroom settings, Mary spent just over five years in a statewide program called the Early Childhood Consultation Partnership (ECCP). The ECCP is a mental health consultation program designed to build the capacity of caregivers by offering support, education, and consultation, to support social/emotional needs of children birth to five in CT. This position gave Mary the opportunity to apply all aspects of her professional experience to engage the closest caregivers of young children. Mary’s professional opportunities have bridged the many roles that early childhood educators can have – providing high-quality education, supporting all aspects of development, and accessing community support to engage all of those important people in children lives.
In 2012, Mary followed what seemed to be fate, yet again, into another momentous opportunity and joined the UConn community on the Stamford Campus, as a lecturer and student program coordinator for the Early Childhood Specializations (ECS). This ECS was historically only offered at UConn Storrs for students in Human Development & Family Sciences. However, Mary introduced the specialization in Stamford to address the need for high-quality education for students looking to work with young children. After ten years in Stamford, Mary will continue within her role in HDFS and join the Storrs Campus as of Fall 2022.
Mary lives with her husband, two young sons and her dog, Nico, just over the state line in Longmeadow, MA. Mary is often busy with just life itself, finding ways to enjoy time with family and building a comfortable, loving home. However, her free time usually fills up with her other interests including reading, running, creating endless DIY projects, cooking/baking, organizing/finding ways to simplify life and dreaming up trips to places she will visit someday.
Laura Mauldin featured in UConn Today
Associate Professor Laura Mauldin featured in UConn Today for new website that provides solutions to everyday problems for disabled people and their caregivers. Read the article here.
Preston Britner, HDFS Faculty Spotlight, August 2022
Dr. Preston Britner is a Professor of HDFS and currently serves as the Associate Department Head for Graduate Studies. “Brit” has been on the faculty at UConn since 1997, and he has been active in service roles at department, college, university, state, and national professional organization levels throughout his time in Storrs.
Brit was born in Washington, DC, and grew up in Virginia. He completed his BA in psychology at the University of Miami, where he also captained the varsity track team, and his MA and PhD in developmental psychology at the University of Virginia, where he contributed to studies of child-parent attachment, child care, and child maltreatment prevention.
At UConn, Professor Britner has researched a number of topics (e.g., attachment-caregiving relationships; youth mentoring; prevention programs) with a focus on the application of child development and parent-child family relationship theory and research to applied settings (i.e., translational science), geared toward the promotion of healthy interactions and the prevention of negative behavioral outcomes. Much of his current research focuses on interventions for families with children in foster care. Brit is examining the effectiveness of college preparatory programs for high school youth in foster care, as well as looking at eventual college attainment for youth in care (and what factors influence those educational outcomes). Since 2001, he has been involved with the study and refinement of the Supportive Housing for Families (SHF) housing and child welfare intervention for families with children in, or at risk for, foster care. SHF is a successful example of a community-based, family-focused intervention that was developed and studied collaboratively with state and nonprofit provider partners.
In addition to publishing two books and dozens of articles and chapters (most with student co-authors), Dr. Britner routinely testifies at state and federal hearings and briefings in Hartford and DC. He has served on numerous editorial advisory boards and was the Editor of The Journal of Primary Prevention (2005-2010). A Fellow of the American Psychological Association (APA) since 2007, Brit served as Co-Chair of the Committee on Children, Youth, and Families, leading APA’s policy efforts related to children and families. In Connecticut, he was Co-Chair of the Families with Service Needs Advisory Board at the legislature, working to improve supportive services for “status offender” children and their families.
At UConn, Professor Britner has chaired the Faculty Review Board, the Faculty Standards and Student Welfare committees of the University Senate, the Planning and Evaluation Committee for university accreditation, and the Teaching and Learning advisory board. He was Co-Chair (2008-2012) of the Public Engagement Forum (and the lead author of UConn’s successful 2010 Carnegie Foundation “Community Engagement” classification application). He has been recognized as a University Teaching Fellow (2003) and with the AAUP Service Excellence Award (2011), the Philip E. Austin Endowed Chair (2013-2016; the first UConn HDFS faculty member to hold an endowed chair), the Provost’s Award for Excellence in Public Engagement (2015), and the Edward C. Marth Mentorship Award (outstanding mentoring of graduate students; 2019).
Brit resides in Hampton, CT, with his three children (a chemist, a college runner, and a high school soccer player) and two cats (Mabel and Thea).